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Whitbread Plans to Expand Premier Inn Hotels in the UK

Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn brand, has revealed its plans about the future expansion. The hotelier plans to add approximately 4,000 guestrooms to its portfolio by 2012. Such an addition will increase the inventory of the hotel by approximately 9%. The company pays particular attention to the United Kingdom market and plans to have as much as 65,000 guestrooms in the country by 2014 with around 10,500 guestrooms in the pipeline. Such step will increase the capacity of the famous brand specializing in budget accommodations in the UK by 50%.

2010 was a successful year for the hospitality division of Whitbread. The company managed to gain the operating profit of £283.4 million, reaching the gain of 14.7%. Such step helped the hotelier to reduce its debt from £513.4 million to £487.9 million.

The increase in underlying profits of the company estimated 20.1%, while the growth in sales reached 11.5% in 2010. This helped Whitbread to reach a strong position on the market and make out new ambitious plans. Even though the growth in the end of 2010 and first quarter of 2011 was not as fast as forecasted, Whitbread is positive about its future and concentrates on focusing on the strengthening of the hotelier’s brands.

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